These past couple weeks has brought about a new definition
of the horror, pain, anger, sorrow, unnecessary violence, and distortion of
reality which law enforcement officials have had to face over the past month.
Nobody can explain the carnage of what transpired on Friday morning in Newtown,
Connecticut. Words cannot explain what happened, nor can words heal those who
lost their child, wife, husband, relative, family member, friend, or cohort.

Imagine being a law enforcement official who has been a part
of the education and training which is required in order to have the knowledge
and strategies in how to handle the deadly violence which has become all to
common in schools, malls, workplaces, and homes.

Law enforcement officials generally do not have to confront
the psychopaths who dress-up in camouflage clothes, arming themselves with hand
guns, rifles, and anything else that will assist them in their mission. Some of
these crazies have worn bullet proof vests and masks, ultimately killing
themselves.

The suicides which the perpetrator commits in their
culmination of their mission makes no sense as why would they worry about being
shot i.e. wearing a bullet-proof vests,
only to put a gun to their head, then killin

g themselves.

Psychiatrists who have assessed these individuals after the
fact immediately perform an autobiographical historical process to ascertain
what the individual’s childhood was like. Some in the mental health profession don’t
have a clue why these men do what they do, but kill they do. The reasons aren’t
any clearer to them than the average person who shakes his head at the
heartbreaking news and cries with those close to the victims, even though they
personally do not know them. The pain is piercing and can be felt across the
globe. Nobody likes death, but to take innocence from children who never did an
evil thing in their lives is simply wrong.

People have begun to question the Second Amendment rights
which guarantee Americans to ‘bear arms.’ Any limitations or changes to this
Amendment would cause one of the greatest conflicts between the government and
its citizens. However, something needs to be done, as the access to guns by
these insane individuals needs to be curtailed to the degree where they can’t
just walk into their father’s closet take out the gun and go out and shoot many
people. Further, when James Holmes began purchasing ammunition and multiple
weapons from the same retailer, red flags should have begun waving everywhere. Instead
the retailer sold and sold and never put together that something wasn’t right
in Colorado.

The shooters James Holmes, Jacob Roberts, and Adam Lanza all
had one thing in common and that was they had psychological, mental, and
emotional disorders. There is no way anyone who knew these individuals didn’t
understand or have knowledge that they were suffering from mental

problems. The
gaze which Holmes presents in court is one of an emptiness which persists every
time he walks into the courtroom. Critics have suggested that he is putting on
a show and that he is mentally disturbed; he wants the court to believe he is
insane so he spends the rest of his life in an asylum and not in prison where
he would be killed.

It will take many years to understand why Holmes didn’t take
his own life like all those who for years have entered schools, killed students,
and then themselves. The impulse to be their own judge and jury, like Roberts
and Lanza chose to do, is something Holmes didn’t follow after the murder spree
that night in the Century Theatre. In fact, police found him by his vehicle
getting ready to leave.

The law enforcement officials, fire personnel, and medical
personnel are in the position where they have to deal with the aftermath of
what these men do to others and themselves. The devastation is emotionally,
mentally, and physically something which will affect these professionals in
ways which may not immediately be apparent, but affect them it will. It is
something that they will never lose sight of and during their lifetime,
triggers will reenact the sadness and madness they felt at the time of
performing their duties as a law enforcement officer.

Everyday the assailants assault, the rapists rape, and the
murderers murder and law enforcement officials deal with these incidences.
These crimes are brutal not only to those the crimes are committed on, but to
the police officers who have to walk into a home, school, workplace, or mall
and see people who are missing body parts, parts of their faces, and so forth.

English: Cases of PTSD and Severe Depression Among U.S. Veterans Deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan Between Oct 2001 and Oct 2007 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The age of the victim is what wears on the law enforcement
official such as what occurred in Newtown. The memories which will forever be
branded in their memory banks will begin to haunt them no matter how they
responded to their initial role they may have played upon arriving at the crime
scene. Many officials will look at the innocence of the children who died and
picture their own child as being one of the victims. There is no way of
approaching the crime scene as a professional and not make it personal. Law
enforcement officials are human begins and they have feelings, emotions,
reactions, and sometimes get angry at what others do to other people.

This picture will haunt them for that moment in time and
they will be in an over protection mode of their children no matter how old
their children are. This may be an over-reaction but the official will process
what they could have done and should have done when it comes to evaluating what
happened in that school, theatre, or mall.

The law enforcement management must be proactive in how they
approach dealing with the traumatic nature of these crimes. No matter what
their officers tell them a psychological assessment needs to be performed on
any officer who responded to the scene and especially those who had the task of
processing the crime scene. Being assigned to work in a classroom, mall, or
theatre, is a process which the officer will deal with from the moment they
step inside the crime scene until the day they die.

The mentality of management must be that of which the
military utilizes when dealing with horrific major injuries and death sites.
Law enforcement must mimic the policies, procedures, and processes the military
utilizes. The number of law enforcement officials who may suffer from Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD) may never be known. However, studies have demonstrated
that it does exist and of the million law enforcement officers there are in the
United States the percentage of officers who suffer from PTSD is extraordinary.
Further, try to count the uncountable number of individuals who wore the badge
over the past century, who have since retired, who are still alive, and are
affected by violent and horrible death scenes they saw while they wore the
badge, every time they close their eyes.

Regions of the brain affected by PTSD and stress. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In perusing the multiple media channels who had cameras
set-up outside the Newtown incident displayed hundreds of law enforcement
officials on the scene performing their specific tasks, roles,
responsibilities, and functions. The question which needs to be asked is how
many of these officers were psychologically, mentally, and emotionally affected
in a negative manner by being a part of the incident and those who was assigned
to take care of the dead? This sounds like a question which should be easy to
answer, but law enforcement officials have this shield around them where they
withdraw for that moment so they can do their job.

These law enforcement officials who dedicate their lives to
protect and serve their communities probably asked themselves this past week,
“Why me?” Most individuals only see a dead person when they attend the funeral
of a friend or family member. Law enforcement officials observe dead people
from time to time, but no one no matter how desensitized they have become because of the job they do
can train for such horrendous events such as what has happened in 2012 here in
the United States. As President Obama said tonight as he spoke to an audience
in Newtown, this is the fourth occasion since I began my Presidency that I have
had to talk to families about the loss of their loved ones; it has to stop.

Much can be learned from these types of incidences which
will continue to occur as there are breaking points in individuals
psychologically, mentally, and emotionally and when the break occurs, their
behavior will be inconsistent to the point where they may act out like Holmes,
Roberts, and Lanza did.

The mental health community must be progressive in this time
of need by so many people, including those in law enforcement. Prevention is
the key to dealing with situations where professionals have to deal with situations
and scenarios that the normal individuals cannot normally process. Mental
health programs need to be developed where a community of mental health
professionals can quickly organize and come to an event such as what happened
in Newtown and begin assisting law enforcement with the management of those who
are dealing with trauma and so much grief.

Moreover, the mental health community must establish
contracts with law enforcement agencies so when these types of violent situations
and other similar violent scenarios occur where law enforcement has the role
and responsibilities to handle these types of incidences the professionals can
receive the necessary and needed counseling. If not, the end result will be that
a great number of officials will be stricken with PTSD which eventually may
become a part of the official’s personality. Preparation is the key to a
successful and positive outcome for professionals who deal with death, not the
normal death, if there is such a thing, but violent deaths where a monster is
released from the zoo he lives in and takes away other’s lives to heal whatever
pain they are feeling.

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Lawrence Daly New Novel

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In the small town of Kent, just south of Seattle in Washington State there is a child serial rapist and murderer who has targeted young girls. Over an eight-year period, Victor has abducted, raped and murdered 12 young girls. Detectives Simon Stocker and Gus Hall begin the chase of Victor. Just when he appears to have disappeared, he abducts 12 year-old Brittany Redman and the chase is on again.

With the assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other law enforcement agencies, a task force is established to chase Victor down. Victor’s method of operandi is to abduct his victims and then they are found 72 hours later, dead.

The time to save Brittany is running out, Detectives Stocker, and Hall pull out all the stops to save her life. Will they be in time?

About Lawrence W. Daly

Lawrence W. Daly is the author of multiple sex crime non-fiction books and booklets. Lawrence is one of the leading experts in the field of child sexual abuse investigations. Chasing Victor is his newest adventure. This debut novel, an exciting thriller will keep you on your toes, wondering who Victor might be, and whether Detectives Stocker and Hall will succeed in chasing Victor down. A must read!

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All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. ~ Edmund Burke

That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do. ~Steve Jobs US computer engineer & industrialist (1955 - 2011 )